The Kurds an Unstable Element in the Gulf
Stephen C. Pelletiere
Westview Press
The Kurds have long been a subject of fascination. Books about them have been written by acting political officers in the British army, journalists, residents of the British East India Company, generals in the Iranian army (writing in English), Kurdish publicists for the Kurds, Armenian publicists for the Kurds, British officers who, having ridden overland from India to Europe, passed through Kurdistan, and secret agents (there have been many books about the Kurds by secret agents). But, with the exception of one or two fine anthropological investigations, there does not exist in English a scholarly treatment of the Kurds that covers all their various recent political involvements.
This omission is curious because the Kurds have been a significant political factor in the Middle East for centuries. Although statistics as to their actual numbers are notoriously unreliable, it still is within reason to assert that after the Arabs, Turks, and Persians, the Kurds are the most numerous of the Middle Eastern peoples. In addition, they inhabit one of the most strategic areas of the globe today: territory that separates the Soviet and Western spheres of influence in the Gulf region. And, if that were not enough, at the time ... | 
